Using large quantities of low %AA hops as bittering?

[kangabrew]

Hello,

I was planning on doing a kölsch (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=33548) which requires Perle and Tettnanger. In the recipe the Perle had an %AA of 7.4 and Tettn. had an %AA of 4.4. However, the hops that I bought has %AA of 3.4 (Perle) and 2.1 (Tettn.), meaning I have to use quite large quantities in order to satisfy the IBU. Will this be a problem? I also have some magnum that I could use.

 

[Photopilot]

Most of my beers are big hopped one and usually will throw some big AA hop in at 60 minutes to bring up IBUs. to my target. With a purer german style beer, putting a foreign hop in the mix may alter flavor of your final product, while adding IIPA amount of hops to a Kolsch might add complexities to your brew day if you don't have the equipment or system to deal with a large hop bill, runon sentence much.

I don't see a problem with adding enough of the proper style of hops to your beer to get the target IBU as long as your system can handle it. One drawback is the cost of your batch will go up. Hopefully you only paid for the hops at a pro-rated expected Alpha Acid content price.

I am interested to know where you got your "diluted" hops from?

 

[NoIguanaForZ]

My suggestion would be to use the Magnum to bring the IBUs up to the recipe spec and keep the Perle and Tettnanger additions as given in the recipe. That keeps your hop debris manageable (depending on how you transfer to the fermenter), probably saves you some money, and keeps the non-AA hop contributions in balance with other ingredients per the recipe vision, and I've found Magnum to be exceptionally clean bittering, so it shouldn't affect the flavor balance.

(Do you happen to know if it's German or American magnum?)

 

[kangabrew]

@Photopilot: I got them from my LHBS, (I live in Sweden).

@NoIguanaForZ: It's german magnum.

Thank you for your answers!

Maybe another approach could be to do this strictly mathematically? The idea is to bring up the %AA to the level of the original hop bill by adding magnum to all of my additions:

x*12.7+(1-x)*3.4=7.8
where 12.7 is the %AA of my magnum, 3.4 %AA of my perle and 7.8 is the %AA of the perle used in the recipe. This gives me x=0,47, and 1-x=0,53, meaning for my first addition, 47% of 1 oz should be magnum, and the remaining 53% should be perle.

For Tettn., the numbers are x=22% magnum and 78% perle (of 0.5 oz).

New hop bill:
0.47*1 oz Magnum 12.7% AA for 60 minutes
0.53*1 oz Perle 3.4% AA for 60 minutes

Same IBU as using 7.8 %AA Perle

0.22*1/2 oz. Magnum 12.7% AA for 15 min.
0.88*1/2 oz. Tettnanger 2.1% AA for 15 min.

Same IBU as using 4.4 %AA Tettnanger

0.22*1/2 oz. Magnum 12.7% AA for 5 min.
0.88*1/2 oz. Tettnanger 4.4% AA for 5 min.

Same IBU as using 4.4 %AA Tettnanger

 

[NoIguanaForZ]

The problem with that approach is that while Magnum has a pretty weak flavor/aroma aspect, it will add something (I've heard "vaguely floral"). This may not be to the detriment of the recipe as a whole, since I think that's generally in line with the hop aspect being targeted, but it will alter the flavor profile and is, I think, an inefficient use of the hop. I'd suggest using it at either 45 or 60 minutes to bring IBUs up.

 

[kangabrew]

@NoIguanaForZ: Thank you. I will do as you suggest: Keep the hop additions exactly as in the recipe, but add enough magnum @60 min to bring the IBU to the target!

 

[Photopilot]

@NoIguanaForZ: Thank you. I will do as you suggest: Keep the hop additions exactly as in the recipe, but add enough magnum @60 min to bring the IBU to the target!

I think this is the best plan. It will help you get target flavors of aroma, etc with the correct hops for a targeted bitterness, with the least alteration of hop profile to the original recipe.

The reason why I asked where your hops came from is I recently ordered some hops from a HBT partner and got hops a bit outside the AA expected in my BeerSmith standard profile. My plan is to use a high IBU hop at 60 minutes to get a target IBU while keeping the rest of the hop schedule on target.

 

[kangabrew]

I ended up doing as you suggested. Thank you!

 

[BigEd]

Hello,

I was planning on doing a kölsch (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=33548) which requires Perle and Tettnanger. In the recipe the Perle had an %AA of 7.4 and Tettn. had an %AA of 4.4. However, the hops that I bought has %AA of 3.4 (Perle) and 2.1 (Tettn.), meaning I have to use quite large quantities in order to satisfy the IBU. Will this be a problem? I also have some magnum that I could use.

It will be more to be sure but it doesn't qualify as a large quantity. A Kolsch is relatively low on the IBU scale, 18-24. You could mix in some Magnum but I'd still keep the Tett in there to take advantage of their flavor in the beer.